In agricultural industries, herbicides are employed widely for eliminating weeds growing in fields. However, in view of safeness for workers, influence on environment, economical benefit and the like, it is preferable to use a herbicide in an amount as small as possible, and a technology for obtaining a necessary herbicidal effect by utilizing a smaller amount of a herbicide is continuously needed.
On the other hand, an agrochemical-containing fertilizer capable of applying both of the agrochemical and the fertilizer all at once has been studied extensively, and several products were brought into practical use majorly in the forms of granular materials (granule formulations) in view of uniform application and safety.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes a granular agrochemical fertilizer formed by coating an agrochemical component with a water insoluble low melting point waxy material which is solid at ambient temperature which is then carried by a granular fertilizer. Patent Document 2 describes a prodiamine-containing granular fertilizer characterized in that a granular fertilizer is impregnated or coated with a water dispersion containing 5-dipropylamino-α,α,α-trifluoro-4,6-dinitro-o-toluidine as an agrochemical herbicidally active component and a white carbon is further incorporated.
However, the agrochemical-containing fertilizers described in these Patent Documents are aimed at saving of labor for applying agrochemicals and fertilizers, preventing an agrochemical from being scattered out of a field, stabilizing an agrochemically active component contained in a fertilizer, or aimed also at pulverizing an agrochemical-containing fertilizer formulation and preventing aggregation thereof. There were no reports with regard specifically to the change in the activity in an agrochemical component.